Aviation Specials – June 2018

(ff) #1

Celebrating a British icon 101


that cost £1,700 each; add in
around £600 for overhauling
and modernising the chassis and
Edinburgh got 60 serviceable
double-deckers for £2,550 each,
when new ones were topping
£4,000 each.
The buses were delivered
to Edinburgh over the seven
months between late 1952 and
July 1953 and went into service
on tram replacement routes.
They were an essential part of
the city fleet working front-line
duties well into the 1960s, with

the first withdrawals in 1967; the
last examples left the fleet
in 1969.
The 17 years in Edinburgh
service testified to the Guy/
Duple combination – and at least
some of the chassis already had
10 years’ London service under
their belt before they came to
Edinburgh.
True to its word, Edinburgh
sold 59 of the 60 Guys to dealers
for scrapping. The 60th bus
survived to be preserved. No.314
was interesting in several ways.

It was based on
the oldest chassis,
that of London
G77 new in June
1943, and during
its Edinburgh
existence, in
1963, it was the
only one to gain
a beefier Gardner
6LW engine, which
necessitated an
extension to the
front end.
By this time the
front ends on all
60 had changed.
The ornate Duple
front had given
way to a simpler
glassfibre Leyland-style front, in
the interests of easy replacement
in the event of accident damage.
During its subsequent 49 years
in preservation, 314 has been
re-engined with the more typical
5LW engine and its original
ornate front end has been
accurately recreated.

SBG purchases them too
Edinburgh was not the only
Scottish operator to benefit from
the sale of the London Guys.

Lives after London


LEFT: Eight of the
former London
Transport Guy
Arabs bought by
Western SMT
received Croft
bodies in 1953/54
that had first been
used to rebody
older Leyland
Titans in 1947.
DY1055 working
in Dumfries was
mounted on the
1945 chassis of the
former London
G267. JASPER PETTIE
COLLECTION

BELOW LEFT:
Alexander
rebodied 19
former London
Transport Guys for
Western SMT in
1952/53. This was
G369 in London,
new in 1945,
and as Western
Y1006 was fitted
with its new body
in 1953. It was
photographed
leaving Dumfries
for Lockerbie.
S. N. J. WHITE
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